


give me reasons to believe

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Friendship, Gaming, Gen, MLB for BLM, Observatory, getting banned from the observatory, kagami needs more friends, markov wants as many people to learn from as possible, markov wants more friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26242090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: "Why didn't we introduce them sooner?"  Alya wonders, draping herself over Nino's back and watching Kagami thrash Max at his own game.Literally.  It's his own game.  Kagami's beating Max at a game Max programmed.Alya's not as surprised by this as she maybe should be.  Kagami has a competitive streak that puts even Marinette's to shame."It definitely did not occur to me that they'd hit if off this hard."  Nino tilts his head, eyebrows shooting up as Kagami uses a move that she definitely learned from Marinette to take Max's Gamer out.
Relationships: Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Kagami Tsurugi, Max Kanté & Kagami Tsurugi, Max Kanté & Markov
Comments: 47
Kudos: 223





	give me reasons to believe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KatyaDarlink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatyaDarlink/gifts).



> written for mlb for blm for KatyaDarlink, for a max and kagami friendship request! it... also has a lot of alya and nino, bc it REFUSED to get out of alyas pov.

"Why didn't we introduce them sooner?" Alya wonders, draping herself over Nino's back and watching Kagami thrash Max at his own game. 

Literally. It's his own game. Kagami's beating Max at a game Max programmed. 

Alya's not as surprised by this as she maybe should be. Kagami has a competitive streak that puts even Marinette's to shame, and Alya has blisters on her palms to attest to Marinette's competitive streak (and maybe a little to the design flaws in N64 controllers. _Why_ does Marinette have an N64, anyway? Why is the original Mario Party game maybe actually thinly-veiled torture disguised as a game? Alya has questions about these things).

"It definitely did not occur to me that they'd hit if off this hard." Nino tilts his head, eyebrows shooting up as Kagami uses a move that she _definitely_ learned from Marinette to take Max's Gamer out. 

It kinda weirds Alya out that Max included Gamer. 

Actually Max's game (title still pending) just kinda weirds Alya out in general. 

She's secretly kinda proud that Lady WiFi's totally one of the best characters, though. Proud enough that she can't stifle a noise of triumph when Kagami selects her next. 

Kagami glances back, lips twitching before her face settles into what'd be amusement on anyone else. On Kagami it sorta looks... like she's still learning how to show it. _Markov_ emotes more expressively. Markov's emoting more expressively right now, his display having settled on _:D_ at Max's first win and now flashing between that and _:(_ when Kagami wins instead. 

And a single _=^_ _^= when Copycat fights Antibug to a draw. Even Max raises an eyebrow at that one. 

(Markov is the reason Alya had learned the word _heuristic_ in the first place. It's more than possible Max didn't program that one).

As if she can sense Alya's thoughts, Marinette appears and elbows her before murmuring, "Kagami's still getting used to showing emotion. Her mom doesn't like it." 

"Where did you just _come from?"_ Alya hisses back, instead of any of the things she'd like to say, which mostly consist of insulting Kagami's mom. Alya's not so great at tact but even she knows that's a bad idea. Kagami might be defying her mother more and more openly, _is_ defying her just to be here, but she still doesn't need to hear just exactly what it is Alya thinks of her anymore than Adrien needs to hear Nino's opinion of _his_ dad. 

Marinette ignores Alya anyway, sliding past to join Max and Kagami.

"No," Nino says faintly. 

Alya raises an eyebrow at him.

He shakes his head, beginning to back away. "No, no, nope, I'm out, goodbye." 

Alya raises her other eyebrow. 

Nino gestures wordlessly at the players in front of them. 

"You're going down," Kagami taunts, voice alarmingly low and vicious as Lady WiFi hurls two locks at Max's Horrificator. Kagami crows in triumph as the locks hit and Max curses as he's frozen in place.

Marinette leans in and whispers something soft and pointed to Kagami. 

Kagami does not seem to have any trouble smiling this time around. The new dark, dangerous edge to it might have something to do with that. 

Moments later, Max manages to break free. Moments before he can fully recover, Kagami's character spins into the air, hurls more locks, and finishes off Horrificator by landing a high kick to the side that Alya is depressingly sure she could _never_ have pulled off at the time.

Marinette crows in triumph and reflexively returns Kagami's fist bump before Alya's done registering the gesture. 

Max is grinning as he inclines his head towards Kagami, far from being a sore loser. "A rematch?" 

Kagami laughs and Alya startles. She's not sure she's ever heard Kagami laugh before. "Best out of of eleven now?" 

Max makes a show of checking the clock. "I have nowhere to be." 

Kagami looks troubled for a moment, but relaxes at a nudge from Marinette. "Nor do I. _Bring it,_ Gamer." 

Max smiles and selects Gamer. Kagami tilts her head for a quick whispered discussion with Marinette, but eventually shakes her head and selects Evillustrator.

She trounces Max. Again.

Max looks _delighted._ Alya's never seen him so happy. She thinks he might declare Kagami his new best friend, except that Markov is right here and Marinette is _still_ whispering into Kagami's ear.

Kagami wins the next match too, but then Max wins again, and then he suggests that Kagami meet him after school tomorrow to finish their competition. 

Kagami looks taken aback. "I have fencing." 

"After that," Max prompts, and Kagami slides an uncertain look over to Marinette's beaming face before nodding. 

Alya's not that surprised when she can't find Marinette after school (she can't find Marinette a lot of the time, anyway, the girl is surprisingly hard to keep track of for some reason). She's a little more surprised when she can't find Nino. 

She finds him again when she finds the video game tournament going on in the library. She finds _everyone_ in the library. It's early enough that she's not totally sure Kagami and Adrien aren't completely skipping out on fencing just to be here and she's pretty sure they _like_ fencing.

Calling it a tournament is not accurate. Max and Kagami are the only two playing.

Alya shrugs and starts making bets with Kim and Alix about the winner. 

She starts seeing Max and Kagami hanging out more often, after that. Video games are the most common but she runs into them at an observatory once, too. Alya's wandered in with Nino, because something like half their dates involve going 'hey this looks interesting' about wherever they've wandered past, but it looks like Max and Kagami have been in here for a while. 

They're both so deeply invested in an intense discussion about regional differences in constellations and sky charts that Alya thinks she should just not get involved at first, except that once she starts thinking about it she can't _stop_ thinking about it, and by the time she realises she's hanging around the edges of the conversation out of pure curiosity Nino has already gotten pulled into it anyway. 

The observatory staff does not appreciate the commentary about how this information should really be something they're teaching themselves. They especially do not appreciate the rapidly increasing volume of said commentary. 

They get thrown out. Alya's pretty sure there was something in that scolding about being banned forever on top of being thrown out. 

"This is how people get akumatised, you know!" she calls back as the doors are slammed and is roundly ignored. 

Alya stands on the sidewalk, narrowing her eyes at the observatory doors while Markov sulkily projects unfamiliar star charts back at the building. That... that actually gives Alya more questions, like, a _lot_ more questions, but she's more concerned with the observatory herself and also with making sure the akumatisation comment isn't prophetic. She doesn't _see_ any black butterflies, but Kagami and Max both look pretty upset. So does Nino, actually, so it's time to distract.

Alya doesn't want to fight any of these people. Alya doesn't want to find out which of them would win. 

"Well. Who wants to go see if Alix can get her dad to nag to Louvre into updating _their_ information?" 

Alix can. Alix does so gleefully. _  
_

Kagami gives Max an uncertain sideways look, skitters her gaze past Markov and Nino and Alya, and ends up looking lost when she ends up at Alix.

Alya tilts her head, considering. Kagami _has_ really hit it off with Max, and Max has seemed way happier since, too. (And Markov has started learning even faster ever since, too, which is awesome even if it's also a little bit terrifying).

Yeah, it's definitely time to start making sure to introduce Kagami to _everyone._ A lifetime ban from what is apparently Paris' most snobbish conservatory is only gonna spur them all on.

**Author's Note:**

> title from philip philips gone gone gone!


End file.
